DEPRESSO | Omeleto

A man starts a group. Alistair is a New Yorker and a social media content creator who curates the perfect images of a fashionably evolved man on his accounts, in the hopes of boosting his followers and getting attention from women for his sophisticated tastes and lifestyle. But curation becomes an obsession, and he can sense he's losing his grip -- and not making any money. He can also sense that other men around him are caught up in the charade, so in the hope of restoring his image (and making some money), Alistair starts a self-help group for "performative males" like him who want to stop the emptiness. But as Alistair tries to sell himself as a guru, he realizes reinvention is not so easy -- and getting real will come at a cost. Directed and written by Alexander Pasquale, this sly, subversive short comedy is a stylishly unstudied satire of social media performativity, narcissism and the discourses surrounding masculinity. Contemporary satire often has a blithely biting and brittle tone, but Pasquale's take is utterly committed to the Brooklyn hipsterisms and stylish naturalism that its main character favors, never letting up on the unbothered nonchalance. As a result, its humor sneaks up on the viewer, not really landing as much as sliding into the DMs, so to speak, and making for a uniquely wry, ironic viewing experience. Actor Khial Watson plays Alistair as a modern-day dandy whose posing and preening for the reels and TikTok have become his personality. Watson gets at how Alistair's seemingly offhand coolness is a pose, but he can't quite drop it because he doesn't know who he is. Alistair is self-aware enough to sense his inner hollowness, and in need of cash and an ego boost, he starts a consciousness-raising group for men like him who are caught up in the game of mirrors that is social media performance. The formation of the group accelerates the storytelling, and it's rich comedic terrain, ripe for poking fun at the habits, guises and rituals of the urbane man. The individual aesthetics may vary, but the men have all lost touch with something vital and authentic inside. The solution that Alistair stumbles upon -- both to shake off his own feelings of emptiness and assert leadership in the group -- is hilarious, both laughingly traditional and casually ironic. It brings DEPRESSO to a slyly comedic conclusion, where men never quite escape the vestiges of a brutal, competitive caveman past -- but these men touch on this past in their own semi-hapless way. Is narcissism the new masculinity? That seems to be the teasing question at the margins of this clever, winking short, whose wit, smarts and humor can't help but peek out from its supremely unbothered style. DEPRESSO. Courtesy of Alexander Pasquale at https://alexanderpasquale.com.